History of Ancient Rome

History of Ancient Rome

B.C.
1200 Trojan War; in legend. Aeneas arrives in Italy
1000 Settlement on Palatine
800 Huts on Palatine and in Forum
753 Traditional date of the founding of Rome by Romulus and Remus
753-509 "Regal Period"
600 Great Sewer (Cloaca Maxima) built; Forum area drained
510-509 Ejection of Tarquinius Superbus; establishment of Roman Republic
509-31 "Republican Period"
509 First treaty with Carthage
500-440 Incursions of Aequi and Volsci
494 First Secession of the Plebs
493 Treaty of Cassius between Rome and the Latins
449 Secession of the Plebs; Laws of the Twelve Tables published
396 Romans capture Etruscan city of Veii
390 Battle of Allia: Rome sacked by Gauls
367 Licinian laws; Plebeians admitted to magistracy
348 Treaty with Carthage renewed
343-4 First Samnite War
340-338 Revolt of Latin League
326-304 Second Samnite War
321 Roman humiliation at the Caudine Forks
306 Third treaty with Carthage
298-290 Third Samnite War
295 Battle of Sentinum
287 Hortensian law (lex Hortensia): plebiscita binding on all citizens
281-275 Invasion of Pyrrhus of Epirus
280 Battle of Herac1ea
279 Battle of Asculum
275 Battle of Beneventum
273 "Friendship" established with Ptolemaic Egypt
264-241 First Punic War
262 Romans storm Agrigentum successfully
260 Roman naval victory at Mylae
255 Roman force in Africa destroyed; fleet destroyed in storm
241 Battle of the Aegates Islands; Sicily made Rome's first province
238 Sardinia and Corsica annexed
241-220 Carthaginian conquest of Spain by Barca family
229 Roman protectorate over IlIyria established
226 Ebro 'Treaty"; "friendship" with Saguntum precedes or follows it?
220 Gallia Cisalpina formed into a province
218-202 Second Punic War; invasion of Italy by Hannibal
218 Battle of Trebia
217 Battle of Lake Trasimene
216 Battle of Cannae
215 Philip V of Macedon allies with Hannibal and Carthage
209 Carthaginian forces in Spain defeated
207 Battle of the Metaurus River
203 Hannibal leaves Italy
202 Battle of Zama
215-204 First Macedonian War
200-196 Second Macedonian War; Macedon barred from Aegean Sea
196 Two provinces formed in Spain (Ulterior and Citerior)
197-133 Roman wars in Spain
192-189 War with Antiochus III of Syria
189 Battle of Magnesia
172-168 Third Macedonian War; Macedon divided into four republics
168 Battle of Pydna; Rhodes ruined by decree
149-146 Third Punic War; revolt in Macedon
147 Macedon formed into province of Macedonia
146 Revolt of Achaean League; Corinth destroyed; Carthage destroyed
135-133 Major slave war in Sicily
133 Tribunate of Tiberius Gracchus; Gracchus and 300 followers murdered in riot; Pergamum willed to Rome
129 Pergamum formed into province of Asia
123-121 Successive tribunates of Gaius Gracchus
121 First passage of senatlls cons G. Gracchus and 3000 followers killed in streetfighting
121 Gallia Transalpina (or Narbonensis) formed into province
111-105 lugurthine War in Numidia
107 First consulship of Marius
105 Battle of Arausio, Italy threatened by Cimbri and Teutones
105-102 Successive consulships of Marius (#s 2-5)
102 Battle of Aquae Sextiae, Teutones defeated
101 Battle of Vercellae, Cimbri defeated
100 Sixth consulship of Marius; senatus consultum ultimum passed
91 Murder of tribune M. Livius Drusus
91-88 Social (Italic) War; universal grant of Roman citizenship to allies
88-84 First Mithridatic War
88 Sulla marches on Rome; "Asiatic Vespers"
87-83 Cinna controls Rome
87 Marius and Cinna seize Rome
86 Seventh consulship of Marius; Marius dies (January)
85 Sulla makes Treaty of Dardanus with Mithridates
83 Sulla returns to Italy; civil war
83-81 Second Mithridatic War
82-79 Sulla dictator "to write laws and organize the state"; strengthens position of Senate, muzzles tribunate
82-81 The Sullan proscriptions
78 Death of Sulla; revolt of M. Aemlius Lepidus; Pompey given command
77-72 Pompey fights Sertorius in Spain
74-63 Third Mithridatic War
73-71 Slave revolt of Spartacus
71 Crassus defeats Spartacus; Pompey returns from Spain
70 Consulship of Pompey and Crassus; Sulla's restoration undone
67 Gabinian Law (lex Gabinia) confers imerium infinitum on Pompey
66 Pirates crushed; Manilian Law (lex Manilia) gives Pompey command against Mithridates
63 Death of Mithridates; Pompey reorganizcs the east; Catilinarian conspiracy in Italy
62 Pompey returns to Italy and "retires"
6O Caesar, Pompey and Crassus form First Triumvirate
51 First consulship of Caesar; legislation favors Triumvirs
58-49 Caesar conquers Gaul
56 Conference of Triumvirs at Luca
55 Pompey and Crass us consuls; legislation favors Triumvirs
54 Death of Julia, Caesar's daughter, Pompey's wife
53 Battle of Carrhae, Crassus killed invading Parthia
49 Caesar crosses Rubicon (10 January); Civil War begins; Caesar dictator for eleven days
49-45 Civil War between Caesar and Pompey
48 Caesar consul; Battle of Pharsalus; Caesar defeats Pompey; Pompey killed in Egypt
47-44 Successive dictatorships of Caesar
47 Caesar suppresses revolt in Asia (Veni, vidi, vici)
46-44 Successive consulships of Caesar
46 Battle of Thapsus in Africa; Cato commits suicide at Utica; Caesar's dictatorship extended for 10 years
45 Battle of Munda in Spain
44 Caesar·s dictatorship made lifelong (February); Caesar assassinated (15 March); Octavius adopted by Caesar and named Octavian; siege of Mutina begins
43 Octavian defeats Antony and. seizing Rome. becomes consul; Octavian. Antony and Lepidus form Second Triumvirate (23 November); proscriptions. death of Cicero (7 December)
42 Double Battles at Philippi (September), Triumvirs defeat Liberators
41 "Perusine War" in Italy
40 "The Peace of Brundisium" between Antony and Octavian
37 Triumvirate renewed
36 Defeat of Sextus Pompeius in Sicily; Lepidus squeezed out of Triumvirate
34 "The Donations of Alexandria"
34-31 Propaganda war between Antony and Octavian
33 Triumvirate lapses; Octavian's second consulship
32 Italy and the west take oath of allegiance to Octavian
31 Battle of Actium; Octavian defeats Antony and Cleopatra
31 BC-AD 476 "Imperial Period"
30 Egypt annexed as Roman province
27 BC-AD 14 Reign of Augustus as first Roman empcror
27 "First Constitutional Settlement" (13 January)
23 "Second Constitutional Settlement"
4 Birth of Jesus of Nazareth
2 Augustus "Father of his Country" (Pater Patriae)


A.D.
14 Death of Augustus (19 August)
14-68 Julio-Claudian Dynasty
14-37 Emperor Tiberius
24-31 Ascendancy of Sejanus
30 Crucifixion of Jesus
37-41 Emperor Gaius (Caligula)
41-54 Emperor Claudius
41 Gaius (Caligula) first emperor to be assassinated
54-68 Emperor Nero
64 Great Fire in Rome. Christians persecuted for first time
66-70 Jewish revolt in Palestine
68 Nero deposed by army revolt
68-69 Emperor Galba
69 Civil War; "Year of the Four Emperors": Galba (January) Otho (January-April), Vitellius (April-December); Vespasian (December)
69-96 Flavian Dynasty
69-79 Emperor Vespasian
70 Jerusalem sacked, Temple destroyed
73 Siege of Masada
79-81 Emperor Titus
81-96 Emperor Domitian
96-98 Emperor Nerva. first of the "Good Emperors"
98-180 "Adoptive Dynasty" (sometimes called the "Antonines")
98-117 Emperor Trajan
106 Formation of Dacia as province
114-17 Eastern wars of Trajan, three new provinces formed
117-138 Emperor Hadrian; abandons Trajan's eastern provinces
122 Construction on Hadrian's Wall in Britain begins
138-161 Emperor Antoninus Pius
150-200 Gradual formation of Germanic tribal confederations
268-270 Emperor Claudius II Gothicus
180-192 Emperor Commodus; adoptive succession abandoned
192 Commodus assassinated; Emperor Pertinax (January-March); emperorship auctioned in forum by Praetorian Guard
193-197 Civil war between Severus, Clodius Albinus, and Pescennius Niger
193-235 Severan Dynasty
193-211 Emperor Septimius Severus
211-212 Emperor Geta (murdered by Caracalla)
211-217 Emperor Caracalla
217-218 Emperor Macrinus (non-Severan usurper)
218-222 Emperor Elagabulus
222-235 Emperor Severus Alexander
220 Emergence of Sassanid Persia in east
235-285 The Crisis of the Third Century; many emperors and usurpers including:
235-238 Emperor Maximinus
238-244 Emperors Gordian I, II, III
244-249 Philip the Arab
249-251 Emperor Decius
250-260 Persecutions of Christians by Decius and Valerian
161-169 Emperor Lucius Verus
161-180 Emperor Marcus Aurelius (rules alone 169- 180)
253-260 Emperor Valerian
253-268 Emperor Gallienus (rules alone, 260- )
253-258 Franks ravage Gaul and Spain
258 Declaration of 'The Empire of the Gallic Provinces" (Imperium Galliantm); Spain and Britain defect to new state
265-268 Gothic assault on Asia Minor and Greece
269-270 Palmyra controls Syria, Egypt, parts of Asia Minor
268-270 Emperor Claudius II Gothicus
270-275 Emperor Aurelian
273 Defeat of Palmyra
274 Imperium Galliarum defeated; empire reintegrated
275 Aurelian assassinated by officers
275-276 Emperor Tacitus
276-82 Emperor Probus
282 Probus murdered by his soldiers
282-284 Civil war
284-305 Emperor Dioc1etian; major reforms; establishment of Tetrarchy
299-311 "The Great Persecution" of Christians, particularly fierce under Tetrarch Galerius
305 Dioc1etian and Maximian retire
306 Constantine dec1ared Augustus by troops; Maxentius seizes Rome; Tetrarchy fails
306-337 Emperor Constantine the Great (rules alone, 324-337)
311 Galerius issues Edict of Toleration of Christianity
312 Battle of the Milvian bridge; Constantine's vision; Constantine gains control of western part of the empire
313 Edict of Milan tolerates all forms of worship
314 Council of bishops at Arelate
317-21 Persecution of Donatists in Africa
324 Constantinople founded
330 Constantinople becomes new capital of Roman empire
325 Council of Nicaea
337-361 Emperor Constantius II
361-363 Emperor lui ian the Apostate
364-375 Emperor Valentinian
364-378 Emperor Valens (east)
375-83 Emperor Gratian
378 Battle of Adrianople, Valens killed by Goths
379-395 Emperor Theodosius the Great gains control of whole empire
391 Edicts of intolerance against paganism; Christianity instituted as official religion
395 Empire officially divided in Theodosius' will into east (under Arcadius) and west (under Honorius)
395-423 Emperor Honorius (west)
395-408 Ascendancy of Stilicho
400 Cities and trade begin to decline in west; Germanic tribes settled in large numbers in Gaul and along Danube frontier
395-402 Alaric and the Visigoths harry east
402-410 Alaric turns to Italy
409 Vandals and others overrun Spain
410 Sack of Rome by Alaric (23 August); Britain abandoned
429 Vandals seize Africa
451-453 Attila the Hun invades west
451 Battle of Chalons; Huns defeated
453 Death of Attila
455 Vandals sack Rome
455-72 Ascendancy of Ricimer
475-476 Romulus Augustulus, last western emperor
476 Traditional date for the "Fall of the Roman Empire"
476-493 Odoacer becomes King (Emperor) of Italy
476-1453 Eastern Empire survives as Byzantine empire/kingdom


Glossary
Acies triplex (tripartite battle formation): The set formation of the Roman Republican army when attacking.

Aediles: The aedileship originated as an office of the "Plebeian State" and became an optional magistracy in the regular cursus honorum; four were elected annually (six after reforms introduced under Caesar), two plebeian and two patrician (the latter termed "curule aediles"). They were in charge of the fabric of Rome, the marketplace, and public games. They had no imperil/m.

Augury: The practice of divination by several means, such as looking at the sky, birds, or interpreting omens.

Auspices: The reading of the gods' attitude toward a project by five means, including looking at the sky, birds, the sacred chickens feeding, or the behavior of four-legged beasts. All public business had to have favorable auspices in order to proceed. Since auspices lasted 24 hours, failure to secure favorable auspices on one day could be reversed the next.

Barbarization: Term for the growing presence and prominence of Germanic peoples in the western empire during the Late Empire.

Boni ("The Good Men"): A self-styling of the conservative senators, it denoted right-thinking, "decent" men in the senate who respected the traditional ways of doing things.

Capitecnsi ("Head Count"): The lowest social class in the Roman citizen census; having no property to declare to the censors, they were counted by their heads alone. hence the name. They were grouped into a single century in the comitia centuriata and voted last, if they got to do so at all (since voting stopped when a majority was reached).

Censors: Two magistrates elected every five years for an eighteen-month tenure of office. They counted citizens, assigned them to their classes, reviewed the register of senators and public morals, and let contracts for tax collection and public construction. They had no imperil/m.

Clientela ("c1ientship"): The social system of binding high and low families together by ties of granting favors and meeting obligations. Originated in the Regal Period.

Colony: Rome started settling colonies of Latins and citizens early, as a means of securing territory. Eventually "colony" became the highest status a subject

community (whether founded by Rome or not) could attain, whereby all freeborn male inhabitants became Roman citizens.

Comitia ("assembly"): Term applied to the Roman popular assemblies convened for voting on a law: the Curiate Assembly (comitia curiata); Centuriate Assembly (comitia centuriata); Tribal Assembly of the People (comitia populi tributa); and Tribal Assembly of the Plebs (comitia plebis tributa) a.k.a. the Council of the Plebs (collcilium plebis). All voting was done in blocks as appropriate for each assembly.

Consul: Chief annually elected Republican magistrate; two elected each year; top powers in political, judicial, and military spheres. They had the greatest imperil/m in the state.

Cursus honorum ("run of offices"): Enforced order of office holding in Republican Rome, based on criteria of wealth, age, and experience. The order of ascent was quaestor (or tribune of the plebs) => aedile (optional) => praetor => consul. Ex-consuls could also become censors or dictators, and patrician exconsuls could be elected as interreges.

Debt-bondage: The archaic system of ensuring cheap labor for the landowning gentry. In return for subsistence, poorer citizens became indentured servants of the landowners. One of the main issues that generated the Struggle of the Orders.

Dictator: Extraordinary magistracy instituted in crises. A dictator was appointed by a magistrate and suspended the normal government of Rome. He had no colleague but appointed an assistant called the Master of Horse (magister equitum). He held office for six months or until he had completed his specific task. A dictator had the combined imperium of the suspended consuls and was so entitled to twenty-four lictors.

Dominate (domillus, Latin for "master"): The term sometimes applied to the autocratic system of rule founded by Diocletian and also to the period of its operation (AD 284-476). The term is used chiefly to distinguish it from the Principate, as established by Augustus.

Donatism: Heresy popular in Africa in fourth and fifth centuries AD. It disputed the right of "traitors," Christians who complied with pagan demands for the burning of Scripture during the Great Persecution (AD 299-311), to be full members of the Church.

Editor: One who put on gladiatorial and related spectacles at personal expense for the entertainment of the commoners.

Epigraphy: The study of inscriptions (on any surface) that derive directly from the ancient world.

Faction: Term applied to politically allied groupings in Republican senatorial politics. Applied later to the four chariot-racing teams (white, blue, green, red) and their supporters.

Fasces: Bundles of rods carried by lictors as marks of a magistrate's imperil/Ill. Outside Rome an ax was added to the rods to symbolize the magistrate's ability to order either corporal or capital punishment.

Fasti: Lists of annual consuls kept at Rome and other towns, usually in the forum. Later, notable events were added under their appropriate years, making surviving fasti (mostly from Italian towns) valuable witnesses to events.

Freedman (Latin, libertus): A former slave raised to the status of citizenship upon manumission but still bound to the owner as a client.

Gallia (Gaul): The Roman name for the Celtic-controlled sector of mainland western Europe. It was divided into two parts, Callia Transalpina ("Gaul across the Alps") comprising France, Belgium, Gallia Cisalpina ("Gaul this side of the Alps"), in the Po Valley in north Italy. Both regions eventually came under Roman control.

Gens (plural, gentes): Normally translated as "clan," this refers to groupings of aristocratic families that seem to have their origin in the Regal Period.

Hellenism, Hellenization ("Hellas," the Greek word for "Greece"): The process whereby features of Greek culture were adopted by another culture in a variety of spheres. The Hellenization of Rome started early (sixth century BC at the latest) but increased in pace following direct contact with the Greek mainland in the second and third centuries Be.

Hellenistic Period/Kingdoms: Name given to the period after Alexander the Great's death in 323 BC; it ended in 31 Be. the year when Ptolemaic Egypt fell to Rome. The kingdoms into which Alexander's eastern empire divided and which existed in this period are termed "Hellenistic."

Imperial Period: Habitual designation for the period from Augustus to the "fall" in the fifth century, so covering the period 31 BC-AD 476. Usually subdivided into the Early Empire (Augustus-Nerva), the High Empire (Trajan-Severans), and the Late Empire (third-fifth centuries).

Imperiuml: Originally this term meant the "power of command" in a military context and was conferred on kings and, later, on consuls and praetors (and dictators). It was also used to denote the area over which the Romans had the power of command, and hence came to mean "empire" in a territorial sense.

Interpretatio Romana ("the Roman meaning"): The process in paganism of identifying newly encountered deities with established Roman divinities, such as the Punic Melqart with the Roman Hercules.

Interrex (plural, interreges): Extraordinary Republican magistracy elected when no consuls were in office. Interreges had to be patrician and held office for five days in order to conduct consular elections. They could be replaced after five days by another five-day interrex, this process continuing until consuls had been elected. They had no imperium.

Latin Rights (ius Latii): A half-citizenship conferred by Rome on deserving allies and colonists. Latin Rights embraced all the privileges and obligations of full citizenship minus the right to vote or stand office (though "naturalization" was possible by moving to Rome itself).

Lictors: Officials who carried the fasces in public as the badges of a magistrate's imperium. The number of lictors reflected the magistrate's relative level of imperil/m: six each for praetors (two when in Rome); twelve each for consuls; and twenty-four for dictators (but before Sulla, only twelve when in Rome).

Ludus: Any place of training or basic education, especially a gladiatorial training school.

Maiores ("elders, ancestors"): The influential and important ancestors of leading Roman families and of the state as a whole. Roman conservatism frequently looked to the mos maiorum ("the way of the ancestors") for examples and guidance.

Manus ("hand, authority"): An important concept in Roman domestic relations, the term denoted the authority-as represented by the hand and what was in it-wielded by fathers over their dependents, husbands over wives, owners over slaves, and so on.

Manumission ("release from authority"): The ceremony of freeing a slave.

Municipia ("township"): This technical term fluctuated in meaning over the centuries but basically described a township under Roman rule in which the freeborn inhabitants had Latin Rights or, later, full citizenship. Eventually it came to denote any self-ruling Italian community, and many provincial ones as well, that was not a citizen colony.

Mystery cults/religions: Predominantly eastern cults in which a select group of initiates went through secret rites about which they were sworn to secrecy (hence the "mystery") and thereby entered into a special relationship with the deity concerned (e.g., Mithras, Isis). A major rival to Christianity, such cults became very popular in the west in the second and third centuries AD.

Names, Roman: The full citizen's name usually had three elements: the praenomen (identifying the individual; very few were in general use), the nomen (identifying the "clan"), and the cognomen (identifying a family within a clan). Extra names (usually heritable) could be accumulated through adoption or as honorific titles, or as nicknames.

Oligarchy: "Rule by a few" selected usually on the basis of birth (aristocracy) or wealth (plutocracy) or a combination of the two. From the Greek oligos ("few") and arche ("1eadership").

Optimates ('The Excellent Men"): Term applied initially to broadly conservative senators who favored the traditional role of the senate at the state's helm. Eventually, it applied especially to die-hard conservatives, who opposed each and every departure from traditional procedure.

Order (ordo, the Latin word for "rank"): The term applied to the various social classes of citizens organized by status. Over the long course of Roman history five Orders appeared: Patrician, Plebeian, Senatorial, Equestrian, and Decurional.

Pax deorum: Term used to describe the desirable modus vivendi between gods and humans, it was maintained by proper ritual observance.

Paterfamilias ("father of the family"): The legal head of the Roman family, he was the eldest living male and wielded patria potestas ("the fatherly power") over all who lived under his roof.

Pontifex Maximus: chief priest of pagan Rome.

Populares ("Men of the People"): Term applied to (usually young) politicians who followed the lead of Ti. and e. Gracchus and employed the tribunate and plebeian assembly to implement their political agenda. Popu/ares. therefore, drummed up support by backing "popular" measures (land distributions, cheap or free grain, debt relief, etc.) and tended to adopt a strongly anti-senate posture.

Praetor: Second highest annually elected Republican magistracy. Originally assistants to the consuls, six were elected each year by 150 BC, with two more added by Sulla. They carried out judicial, political. and military functions. They had imperium. but lesser than that of the consuls.

Praetorian Guard/Prefect: Originally a special detachment of soldiers who guarded the CO's tent (praetorium) in an army camp, the term was adopted for the imperial guard of the emperor in Rome. Formed by Augustus and discreetly billeted in towns around Rome, they were barracked in a single camp on the outskirts of the city by Tiberius in AD 23. They numbered from 9,000-16.000 men, depending on the emperors' inclination. They played some role in imperial politics (it has often been exaggerated), killing some emperors (e.g., Gaius [Caligula]), elevating others (e.g., Claudius. Otho and Didius Julianus). Their commander. a prefect of Equestrian status. could be a person of great influence. as was the case with Sejanus under Tiberius or Macrinus, who himself became emperor in AD 217-218. They were disbanded by Constantine in AD 312.

Principate: Term used to describe both the imperial system established by Augustus and the period of its operation (27 BC-ca. AD 284).

Prodigia: Unasked-for signs from the gods, usually in the form of extraordinary or supernatural occurrences.

Publican; (literally "public men"): Term used to denote companies of (usually) equestrian members who purchased public contracts let by the censors. The most powerful were the tax collectors, who competed for contracts for particular regions, thus leaving those regions open to widespread abuse and extortion.

Quaestor: Most junior magistracy in the cursus honorum, ten were elected annually. They had financial duties and no imperium.

Regal Period: The period when kings ruled Rome, traditionally dated 753-509 Be.

Republican Period: Traditionally dated 509-31 BC, this long period of oligarchic rule by senate and magistrates is often subdivided into the Early Republic (down to 264 BC and the First Punic War), Middle Republic (264-133 BC). and the Late Republic (corresponding to the Roman Revolution, 133-31 BC).

Romanization: Modern historians' term for the process of making previously uncivilized regions into Roman ones (although it can be applied also to the adaptation of urbanized cultures to the Roman way).

Senate: Council of Roman aristocratic advisors, first to the kings, then to the magistrates of the Roman Republic, and finally to the Emperors. Its origins are obscure.

Senatus consultum (ultimum) ("[final] decree of the senate"): Advice issued by the senate to magistrates; it was not legally binding. The "final" (ultimum) decree was essentially a declaration of martial law first issued in 121 BC amid the disturbances surrounding e. Gracchus' attempt for a third tribunate and the last was issued when Caesar invaded Italy in January 49 Be.

Tribe: A grouping of Roman citizens defined by locality (like a parish or county). There were originally only three tribes (hence the name, derived from the Latin tres, meaning "three"), but the number of tribes increased with Roman expansion and was eventually set at 35 (4 urban, 31 rural).

Tribune of the Plebs: Not technically a magistrate, this was the officer attached to the Tribal Assembly of the Plebs; his title derives from the tribal organization of this assembly. He had to be plebeian, was sacrosanct and could not be harmed while in office, was entrusted with looking after the interests of the plebs and could convene discussion sessions (contiones) or voting sessions (comitiae) of the plebs. His most important power was a veto on meetings of all assemblies and the Senate and on all legislation.

Triumvirate: Latinate term applied to any board of three men empowered to carry out some task (e.g., Ti. Gracchus' land commission). Usually applied (technically incorrectly) to the pact between Crassus, Pompey and Caesar formed in 60 BC (the so-called First Triumvirate). The Second Triumvirate comprised of Octavian, Antony and Lepidus and was legally instituted in 43 Be.

Venatio ("the hunt"): Wild beast hunt and/or animal fights that constituted the first installment of the developed gladiatorial spectacle.

History of the English Language

History of the English Language


OLD ENGLISH

Every letter was pronounced and words were spelled as they were pronounced. Each dialect had its own spelling.

Old English had European vowel sounds: Ah, Eh, Ee, Oh, Oo.

Old English vocabulary was deeply influenced by Norse (Scandinavian words). Some Norse words survived along with their English counterparts. For example:

Ship [OE] = Skip [N] (today: a skipper pilots a ship)
Shirt [OE]= Skirt [N] (today: both are a piece of clothing)
Church [OE]= Kirk [N] (today: both are a place of worship in Scotland)

Old English was fully inflected and had case endings, verb tense endings, and gender forms much like German has today. Some of this is fossilized in the King James Bible:

For example: dost, doth, etc. (inflections of the verb “to do”).

Old English also had both 2nd person singular and plural pronouns: Thou and You. Using the second person plural “you” was the polite way to address a single person, while the singular form “thou” was the informal way to address someone. The King James Bible fossilized the use of “Thou” and “Thee” and “Thine” in reference to God since the informal form of address was always used for God in all European languages. Thus, what sounds very formal to us today was actually the informal and intimate way to address someone. By the seventeenth century the second person singular pronoun (thou, etc.) had dropped out and the second person plural pronoun (you) did double duty.

Old English verbs were strong verbs (the vowel changed to indicate tense): sing, sang, sung. However, all new verbs are weak verbs (add “–ed” and “have” to indicate tense): walk, walked, have walked. All new verbs being coined today (since the fifteenth century) are weak verbs.


MIDDLE ENGLISH

The Norman Conquest of 1066 dramatically changed the English language. The northern French dialect of the Norman rulers affected the development of the English language for 300 years.

The was a massive influx of French words into the English vocabulary. As with the Norse words, many of the English words survived along with the French words. For example:

Chalet = Castle
Chapeau = Cap
Chattle = Cattle
Guardian = Warden
Guarantee = Warranty
Gauge = Wage
Salon = Saloon

French also had a strong influence on English vocabulary for food. In Old English, the same word used for animal was also used for the name of the dish. After the eleventh century, however, French words were used for the dishes and not the English animal words. For example:

Pig = Pork
Cow = Beef
Calf = Veal
Lamb = Mutton

There were many dialects in England, and some of them were mutually unintelligible. A man from the south traveling in the north might be mistaken for a foreigner and find that communication was impossible.

The government also began to standardized spelling. Spelling was determined by the ruling dialect, so that words were no longer spelled as they were pronounced but by the standard set by the government. With the introduction of the printing press to England, standardized spelling became universal and unchanging.

As prepositions became more popular, they began to supercede the use of case endings. By the end of the Middle English period, the case endings had all but disappeared.

There was also an increase in the use of the continuous aspect of the verb, using the –ing verb endings.

By this time, England had become a trilingual society: English, French, and Latin. English was spoken by the common man, French by the court, and Latin by the clergy. Most scholarly works were in Latin, and most English works were translated into Latin. One artifact of this reality can still be seen in the wedding vows still used by some: “to love, honor and cherish.” Love is an Old English word, honor comes from French, and cherish is Latin. All three words mean basically the same thing, indicating that the vows grew out of this trilingual culture.


MODERN ENGLISH

The most dramatic change to the English Language came in the Great Vowel Shift (15th century). English pronunciation shifted from its European roots (Ah Eh Ee Oh Oo), to its present pronunciation of Ay Ee Ai Ohh You. Even Shakespeare had a very difficult time understanding Middle English works, such as Chaucer.

Shakespeare, along with his contemporaries, began to coin many new words. Shakespeare’s vocabulary is so extensive because many of the words he used were springing into existence as he wrote.

One dramatic change during this time was the propensity to turn nouns into verbs, for example: hound = to hound.

There was also an influx of new scientific words that later took on metaphorical meanings, for example: Attraction, which originally referred to the force that caused to bodies to move closer to each other, and later took on the metaphorical use.

There was also the introduction of the nominalization of verbs using the “–ing” ending.

Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language (1755) and Noah Webster’s Dictionary (1828) in America started the modern trend of lexicography of the English language.


PIDGIN ENGLISH AND CREOLE

Pidgin is a makeshift language used by two or more groups of people that do not share a common language, in such situations as trade or slavery. Creole is a fully developed language that evolved out of a Pidgin.

Natural and Moral Authority

Natural and Moral Authority

Natural authority is controlled by natural laws that cannot be violated because all actions have consequences. Human beings have the freedom and power to choose, so they have power over the rest of creation.

Moral authority is the principled use of our power to choose, so that we tap into nature when we follow principles in our actions and relationships.

Natural laws (like gravity) and principles (like respect, honesty, integrity, kindness, service and fairness) control the consequences of our choices. We choose our actions but we don’t choose the consequences of those actions; they are determined by natural laws and principles. By the principled, humble use of freedom and power, the humble person obtains moral authority.

Values are social norms, and are personal, emotional, subjective and arguable. The question we must ask ourselves is, “Are my values based on principles?”

Consequences are governed by principles; behavior is governed by values; therefore, value principles.

Moral vertigo occurs when your values are not based on principles, resulting in a loss of what is true and important. You must take the time and effort to center yourself and anchor your values on changeless principles.

The key task is to determine where “True North” is and then align everything with that. Otherwise, you will live with the inevitable consequences of bad choices. Moral authority requires the sacrifice of short-term selfish interests and the exercise of courage in the subordinating social values to principles.


From Steven Covey, The 8th Habit.

Chinese History

Chinese Dynasties

Xia 2100 BC
Shang 1500 BC
Qin 221-207 BC
Zhou 1045 BC
Warring States 480-221 BC
Han 202 BC – 220 AD
Three Kingdoms 220-280 AD
Sui 581-618 AD
Tang 618-906 AD
Five Dynasties 907-960 AD
Liao 907-1125 AD
Northern Song 960-1127 AD
Jin 1126-1234 AD
Southern Song 1127-1279 AD
Yuan 1260-1368 AD
Ming 1368-1644 AD
Qing 1636-1912 AD


Chinese History Timeline

500,000 B.C.E. Peking Man hominid fossils
10,000 B.C.E Domestication of rice in Jiangxi
4600 B.C.E Neolithic village cultures in northern China
2100 B.C.E Xia "dynasty" in Yellow River valley
1500 B.C.E Shang state on North China Plain
1045 B.C.E Zhou Conquest
722-481 B.C.E Spring and Autumn period
480-221 B.C.E Warring States period
207 B.C.E Fall of Qin dynasty
202 B.C.E.-220 C.E Han dynasty
141-87 B.C.E Reign of Wudi
81 B.C.E Debate on Salt and Iron
9-23 C.E Usurpation of Wang Mang
100 C.E First Buddhist temple in China
182 C.E Yellow Turban uprising
220-280 Three Kingdoms period
310 Turkic migrations into northern China begin
581-618 Sui dynasty
618-906 Tang dynasty
684-705 Reign of Empress Wu Zetian
713-756 Reign of Xuanzong
755-763 An Lushan rebellion
768-824 Han Yu
845 Official suppression of Buddhism
907-960 Five Dynasties period
907-1125 Liao dynasty of the Khitan people
960-1127 Northern Song dynasty
1126-1234 Jin dynasty of the Jurchen people
1206 Mongol quriltai elects Temujin as Great Khan
1127-1279 Southern Song dynasty
1130-1200 Zhu Xi
1260-1368 Mongol Yuan dynasty
1272-1290 Marco Polo in China
1313 Mongols restore Confucian examinations
1340s Great plague in Yangzi River valley
1368-1644 Ming dynasty
1402 Zhu Di usurps the throne
1405-1435 Ming voyages of exploration
1572-1620 Reign of Wanli emperor
1580 "Single Whip" tax reforms
1626 Nurhaci inaugurates Manchu language use
1636 Qing dynasty proclaimed by Manchus
1644 Fall of Ming dynasty and Manchu invasion
1661-1722 Reign of Kangxi
1673-1681 Rebellion of the Wu Sangui
1712 Kangxi's tax edict
1723-1735 Reign of Yongzheng
1736-1795 Reign of Qianlong
1793 British trade mission to China
1813 Secret society rebellion against Qing
1839-1842 Opium War
1850-1864 Taiping Rebellion
1864-1895 Self-Strengthening Movement
1894-1895 Sino-Japanese War
1898-100 Days Reforms
1899-1900 Boxer Rebellion
1905 Confucian examinations abolished
1911 October 11, Wuhan mutiny sets off revolution
1912 February 12, Abdication of last emperor
1912 February 15, Yuan Shikai becomes president
1916 Yuan Shikai tries to become emperor
1919 May 4, Student demonstration in Beijing
1921 July, Founding of Chinese Communist Party
1922-1927 First United Front of Communists and Nationalists
1926 Northern Expedition of Chiang Kaishek
1927 April, Split between CCP and GMD
1929-1934 Jiangxi period of Chinese Communists
1931 September 18, Japanese invade Manchuria
1934 October 1935 October Long March
1936 December, Xian incident: Chiang "arrested"
1937-1945 Second United Front
1937 July 7, Marco Polo Bridge incident: Japanese invasion
1945 End of war with Japan
1945-1949 Civil war between Communists and Nationalists
1948 Nationalists massacre Taiwanese
1949 Nationalists withdraw to Taiwan
1949 October 1, Mao proclaims People's Republic of China
1949-1952 Land reform
1950 Marriage law
1958-1959 Great Leap Forward
1959 August, Lushan Plenum: Peng Dehuai purged, Mao retreats from daily leadership
1962 Socialist Education Movement
1966-1969 Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
1976 Death of Mao Zedong
1978-1994 Leadership of Deng Xiaoping
1989 Tiananmen student movement, suppressed June 4
1999 China and the United States agree on WTO membership

Inside Out Again: Conclusion

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
by Stephen R. Covey
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989


Inside Out Again
Conclusion

There is a gap between stimulus and response, and the key to both our growth and happiness is how we use that space. Do we respond to situations positively, proactively? Are we taking control of our own lives? Meditating on this idea led Covey to start deep communication with his wife, including more and more discussion of their inner worlds. It was a time of inner discovery. They developed two ground rules. First, “no probing,” just empathize. Probing was too invasive. The second was when it hurt too much, quit for the day. The most difficult and most fruitful part of this communication came when the vulnerability of each person was touched. They discovered a new sense of reverence for each other. They discovered that even seemingly truthful things often have roots in deep emotional experiences. To deal with the superficial trivia without seeing the deeper, more tender issues is to trample on the sacred ground of another’s heart. The ability to use wisely the gap between stimulus and response, to exercise the four unique endowments of our human nature, empowers us from the inside out. (The four endowments are self-awareness, imagination, conscience, and independent will. See the summary of Habit 1 Be Proactive.) By understanding the role of scripting, we understand the transcendent power in a strong intergenerational family. An effectively interdependent family of children, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins can be a powerful force in helping people have a sense of who they are, where they came from and what they stand for. “There are only two lasting bequests we can give our children. One is roots, the other wings.” Anonymous. We should make a personal goal of becoming a “transition person,” a person who changes the scripts transferred to the next generation from negative to positive by being proactive. This should be part of our personal mission statement. A tendency that has run through a family for generations can stop with one person.

Anwar Sadat, the former President of Egypt, was a powerful transition person for peace in the Middle East. Sadat said, “He who cannot change the very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality, and will never, therefore, make any progress.” Real change comes from the inside out. Amiel said, “Only these truths... which have become ourselves... are really our life... So long as we are able to distinguish any space whatever between truth and us we remain outside it. To become divine is then the aim of life.... It is no longer outside us, now in a sense even in us, but we are it, and it is we.” To achieve unity with ourselves, our loved ones, our friends, and our working associates, is the highest, best, and most delicious fruit of the Seven Habits. Building a character of total integrity and living the life of love and service that creates such unity isn’t easy, but it’s plausible. If we start with the daily private victory and work from the inside out, results will surely come.



These posts were summarized by Michael Gray.

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
by Stephen R. Covey
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989


Sharpen the Saw
Principles of Balanced Self-Renewal
Habit 7

Suppose you came upon someone in the woods working to saw down a tree. They are exhausted from working for hours. You suggest they take a break to sharpen the saw. They might reply, “ I didn’t have time to sharpen the saw, I’m busy sawing!” Habit 7 is taking the time to sharpen the saw. By renewing the four dimensions of your nature physical, spiritual, mental and social/emotional, you can work more quickly and effortlessly. To do this, we must be proactive. This is a Quadrant II (important, not urgent) activity that must be acted on. It’s at the center of our Circle of Influence, so we must do it for ourselves.

The Physical Dimension.

The physical dimension involves caring for your physical body eating the right foods, getting enough rest and relaxation, and exercising on a regular basis. If we don’t have a regular exercise program, eventually we will develop health problems. A good program builds your body’s endurance, flexibility and strength. A new program should be started gradually, in harmony with the latest research findings. The greatest benefit of taking care of yourself is development of your Habit 1 “muscles” of proactivity.

The Spiritual Dimension.

The spiritual dimension is your center, your commitment to your value system. It draws upon the sources that inspire and uplift you and tie you to timeless truths of humanity. A doctor suggested that Covey try a four step prescription at three-hour intervals at his favorite place as a child. Listen carefully, try reaching back, examine your motives, and write your worries in the sand. When we take time to draw on the leadership center of our lives, what life is ultimately all about, it spreads like an umbrella over everything else. This is why a personal mission statement is important.

The Mental Dimension.

It’s important keep your mind sharp by reading, writing, organizing and planning. Read broadly and expose yourself to great minds. Television is the great obstacle to mental renewal. Most of the programming is a waste of time. Every day we should commit at least one hour to renewal in the first three dimensions: physical, mental, and spiritual. This practice is a “Daily Private Victory.”

The Social/Emotional Dimension.

The physical, spiritual, and mental dimensions are closely related to Habits 1, 2 and 3: personal vision, leadership and management. The social/emotional dimension focuses on Habits 4, 5 and 6: the principles of personal leadership, empathetic communication and creative cooperation. Our emotional life is primarily developed out of and manifested in our relationships with others. Renewing our social/emotional dimension requires focus and exercise in our interaction with others. Success in Habits 4, 5 and 6 is not primarily a matter of intellect, but emotion; it’s highly related to our sense of personal security. Intrinsic security comes from within, from accurate paradigms and correct principles deep in our own mind and heart. It comes from living a life of integrity, in which our daily habits reflect our deepest values. There is also intrinsic security that comes as a result of effective interdependent living and from service, from helping other people in a meaningful way. Each day, we can serve another person by making deposits of unconditional love.

Scripting Others.

Most people are living in a reactive mode based on the social mirror. Their scripts are based on the opinions, prescriptions, and paradigms of the people surrounding them. As interdependent people, we recognize our role as part of that social mirror. We can affirm the proactive nature of others by treating them as responsible people. We can help support them as principle-centered, value-based, interdependent, worthwhile individuals. In the story of the mix up of the “bright” and “slow” students, the teachers of a group of “slow” children erroneously classified as “bright” said, “For some reason, our methods weren’t working, so we had to change our methods.” The IQ scores of the students dramatically improved. Apparent learning disability was really teacher inflexibility. Goethe taught, “Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be.”

Balance in Renewal.

Self renewal must include balanced renewal in all four dimensions—physical, spiritual, mental and social/emotional. Neglecting any one area negatively impacts the rest. The same concept also applies to organizations. The process of continuous improvement is the hallmark of the Total Quality movement and a key to man’s economic ascendancy.

Synergy in Renewal.

The things you do to sharpen the saw in any one dimension have a positive impact in the other dimensions, because they are so highly interrelated. The Daily Private Victory, a minimum of one hour a day to renew the personal dimensions, is the key to the development of the Seven Habits and is completely within your circle of influence. It’s also the foundation for the Daily Public Victory. It’s the source of the intrinsic security you need to sharpen the saw in the social/emotional dimension.

The Upward Spiral.

Renewal is the principle and process that empowers us to move on an upward spiral of growth and change, of continuous improvement. Education of the conscience is vital to the truly proactive, highly effective leader. Conscience is the endowment that senses our congruence or disparity with correct principles and lifts us towards them. Training and educating the conscience requires regular feasting on inspiring literature, thinking noble thoughts, and living in harmony with its small voice. Dag Hammarskjold, past Secretary-General of the United Nations, said, “He who wants to keep his garden tidy doesn’t reserve a plot for weeds.” The law of the harvest governs, we will always reap what we sow—no more, no less. Moving along the upward spiral requires us to learn, commit and do on increasingly higher planes.

Habit 6: Synergize

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
by Stephen R. Covey
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989


Synergize
Principles of Creative Cooperation
Habit 6

The exercise of the other habits prepares us for synergy. Synergy means the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The relationship which the parts have to each other is a part in and of itself the most empowering, unifying and exciting part. The essence of synergy is to value differences to respect them, to build on strengths, and to compensate for weaknesses. The way to achieve synergy is through the creative process, which is terrifying, because you never know where the creative process will lead you.

Synergistic Communication

Synergistic communication is opening your mind and heart to new possibilities. It may seem like you are casting aside “beginning with the end in mind,” but you are actually fulfilling it by clarifying your goals and discovering better ones. Almost all creative endeavors are somewhat unpredictable, and unless people have a high tolerance for ambiguity and get their security from integrity and inner values, they find it unpleasant to be involved in highly creative enterprises. By taking the time to really build a team, creating a high emotional bank account, the group can become very closely knit. The respect among members can become so high that if there is a disagreement, there can be a genuine effort to understand. High trust leads to high cooperation and communication. The progression of communication is defensive (win or lose/win), to respectful (compromise), to synergistic (win/win). Synergistic communication must be achieved to develop creative possibilities, including better solutions than original proposals. If synergy isn’t achieved, even the effort will usually result in a better compromise.

Synergy in the Classroom

A synergistic class progresses from a safe environment to brainstorming. The spirit of evaluation is subordinated to the spirit of creativity, imagining and intellectual networking. Then the entire class is transformed with the excitement of a new direction. This is not a flight of fancy, but of substance. Other times a class may approach synergy, but descends into chaos. Synergy requires the right chemistry and emotional maturity in the group to develop.

Synergy in Business

Excitement can replace respectful exchanges and ego battles. But a particular synergistic experience can seldom be recreated. Rather, new experiences should be sought. By synergistically creating a mission statement, it becomes engraved in the hearts and minds of the participants.

Fishing for the Third Alternative

The “middle” way may not be compromise, but a third alternative, like the apex of a triangle. By mutually seeking to understand and be understood, the participants pool their desires. They work together on the same side to create a third alternative to meet everyone’s needs. Instead of a transaction, this is a transformation. Each participant gets what they really want, and they build their relationship in the process.

Negative Synergy

The usual win/lose approach results in expending negative synergy. It’s like trying to drive down the road with one foot on the gas and the other on the brake. Instead of taking their foot off the brake, most people give it more gas. They apply more pressure to strengthen their position, creating more resistance. In contrast, a cooperative approach enables accomplishment. The problem is that highly dependent people are trying to succeed in an interdependent reality. They may talk win/win technique, but they want to manipulate others. These insecure people need to mold others to their way of thinking. The key to interpersonal synergy is intrapersonal synergy synergy within ourselves helps us achieve synergy with others. The heart of intrapersonal synergy is the first three habits, which give the internal security sufficient to handle the risks of being open and therefore vulnerable. In addition, by learning to use the left brain, logic, with the right brain, emotion, we develop psychic synergy that is suited to reality, which is logical and emotional.

Valuing the Differences

The essence of synergy is to value the mental, emotional, and psychological differences between people. The key to valuing these differences is to realize that all people see the world, not as it is, but as they are. The person who is truly effective has the humility and reverence to recognize his own perceptual limitations and to appreciate the rich resources available through interaction with the hearts and minds of other human beings. That two people can disagree and both be right is not logical, it’s psychological. And it’s very real. We see the same thing, but interpret it differently because of our conditioning. Unless we value the differences in our perceptions and understand that life is not always a dichotomous either/or, that there are almost always third alternatives, we will never be able to transcend the limits of our conditioning. If two people have the same opinion, one is unnecessary. So when I become aware of the difference in our perceptions, I say “Good! Help me see what you see.” By doing that, I not only increase my awareness, but I also affirm you. I give you psychological air. I create an environment for synergy.

Force Field Analysis

According to Kurt Lewin, a sociologist, the current level of performance or being is a state of equilibrium between the driving forces encouraging upward movement and restraining forces discouraging it. Driving forces are positive, personable, and conscious. Restraining forces are negative, emotional, unconscious, and social/psychological. Both forces must be considered in dealing with change. Increasing driving forces may bring temporary results. Eventually, restraining forces act like a spring to throw the level back down. To produce synergy, the concepts of win/win, mutual understanding and seeking synergy are used to work directly on the restraining forces. Involving people in the problem, so they understand it, makes it their problem. They tend to become an important part of the solution. As a result, shared goals are created, enabling the whole enterprise to move upward. The legal process should be a last, not first, resort because it polarizes the parties, making synergy practically impossible.

All Nature is Synergistic

Ecology, the interrelationship of things, describes the synergism in nature. In the relationship creative powers are maximized. The Seven Habits are also interrelated and are most powerful when used together. Synergy is the crowning achievement of the previous habits. It is effectiveness in an interdependent reality. A lot of synergy is in your circle of influence. You can value both your own analytical and creative sides. You can sidestep negative energy and look for the good in others. You can courageously express your ideas in interdependent situations. You can value the differences in others when you see only two alternatives, yours and the “wrong” one. You can seek a synergistic third alternative.

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
by Stephen R. Covey
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989


Seek First to Understand Then to be Understood
Habit 5

We often prescribe before making a proper diagnosis when communicating. We should first take the time to deeply understand the problems presented to us. The real key to influence is example your actual conduct. Your private performance must square with your public performance. Unless people trust you and believe you understand them, they will be too angry, defensive, guilty or afraid to be influenced. Skills of empathic listening must be built on a character that inspires openness and trust and high emotional bank accounts.

Empathic Listening

People tend to filter the information they receive through their own paradigms, reading their autobiography into other people’s lives, or projecting their own home movies onto other people’s behavior. When another person is speaking, we usually “listen” at one of four levels: ignoring, pretending, selective listening, or attentive listening. We should be using the fifth, highest form of listening empathic listening. Active or reflective listening is skill-based and often insults the speaker. Empathic listening is listening with intent to understand the other person’s frame of reference and feelings. You must listen with your ears, your eyes and your heart. Empathic listening is a tremendous deposit into the emotional bank account. It’s deeply therapeutic and healing because it gives a person “psychological air.” Next to physical survival, the greatest need of a human being is psychological survival to be understood, to be affirmed, to be validated, and to be appreciated. Empathic listening is risky. It takes a great deal of security to go into a deep listening experience because you open yourself up to being influenced. You become vulnerable. In order to have influence, you must be influenced.

Diagnose Before You Prescribe

It can be dangerous to prescribe without an accurate diagnosis. An effective salesperson seeks to understand the needs, concerns and situation of the customer. An amateur sells products, the professional sells solutions. This is a common denominator principle with its greatest power in interpersonal relationships.

Four Autobiographical Responses

Evaluate Agree to disagree.

Probe Ask questions from your own frame of reference.

Advise Give counsel based on your own experience.

Interpret Explain motives and behavior Interpret Explain motives and behavior Interpret based on your own motives and behavior.

These behaviors are controlling and invasive. They may also be logical, and the language of logic is different from the language of sentiment and emotion. You will never be able to truly step inside another person and see the world as he sees it until you develop the pure desire, the strength of personal character, and the positive emotional bank account as well as the empathic listening skills to do so. The skills involve four developmental stages:

1. The least effective is to mimic content, which is taught in active or reflective listening repeating what the person said back to him or her.

2. To rephrase the content is more rephrase the content is more rephrase the content effective, but still limited to the verbal communication. It’s putting the persons’ meaning in your own words. This is a “logical” approach.

3. To reflect feeling involves the right reflect feeling involves the right reflect feeling brain, emotional level.

4. To rephrase the content and reflect the feeling includes both the second and third, feeling includes both the second and third, feeling attempting to understand both sides of his communication and give psychological air.

All the well-meaning advice in the world won’t amount to a hill of beans if we’re not addressing the real problem. And we’ll never get to the real problem if we can’t see the world from another point of view. By seeking first to understand, we can turn a transactional opportunity into a transformational opportunity. We can get on the same side of the table looking at the problem instead of staying on opposite sides staring at each other. Emotional statements require empathic, logical-emotional responses. Children will open up to their parents if they feel their parents will love them unconditionally and will be faithful to them afterwards, never ridiculing them. Sometimes talking isn’t necessary to empathize; the words may get in the way. Empathic listening takes time, but not as much time as backing up and correcting misunderstandings, including living with problems and the results of not giving the people you care about psychological air.

Understanding and Perception

By understanding the other person, we can learn their paradigms through which they view the world and their needs. Then we can try to resolve our differences to work together.

Then Seek to be Understood

Knowing how to be understood is as important as seeking to understand in reaching Win/Win solutions, and requires courage. The Greek philosophy of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos gives the sequence for effective communication. Ethos is your personal creditability. Pathos is the empathic side. Logos is the reasoning side. Most people go straight to the logical side without first establishing their character and building the relationship. Describe the alternative they favor better than they can themselves. Then explain the logic behind your request. When you can present your own ideas clearly, specifically, visually and most importantly contextually in the context of a deep understanding of their paradigms and concerns you significantly increase the creditability of your ideas.

One on One

Habit 5 is powerful because it focuses on your circle of influence. It’s an inside out approach. You are focusing on building your understanding. You become influenceable, which is the key to influencing others. As you appreciate people more, they will appreciate you more. Opportunities to practice this habit proactively occur every day with your co-workers, customers, friends, and family. When we really deeply understand each other, we open the door to creative solutions and third alternatives. Our differences are no longer stumbling blocks to communication and progress. Instead they become the stepping stones to synergy.

Habit 4: Think Win-Win

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
by Stephen R. Covey
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989


Think Win-Win
Habit 4

Win/Win is one of six total philosophies of human interaction.

1. Win/Win People can seek mutual benefit in all human interactions. Principle-based behavior.

2. Win/Lose The competitive paradigm: if I win, you lose. The leadership style is authoritarian. In relationships, if both people aren’t winning, both are losing.

3. Lose/Win The “Doormat” paradigm. The individual seeks strength from popularity based on acceptance. The leadership style is permissiveness. Living this paradigm can result in psychosomatic illness from repressed resentment.

4. Lose/Lose When people become obsessed with making the other person lose, even at their own expense. This is the philosophy of adversarial conflict, war, or of highly dependent persons. (If nobody wins, being a loser isn’t so bad.)

5. Win Focusing solely on getting what one wants, regardless of the needs of others.

6. Win/Win or No Deal If we can’t find a mutually beneficial solution, we agree to disagree agreeably no deal. This approach is most realistic at the beginning of a business relationship or enterprise. In a continuing relationship, it’s no longer an option.

The most appropriate model depends on the situation. When relationships are paramount, Win/Win is the only viable alternative. In a competitive situation where building a relationship isn’t important, Win/Lose may be appropriate. There are five dimensions of the Win/Win model: Character, Relationships, Agreements, Supportive Systems and Processes.

1. Character is the foundation of Win/Win. There must be integrity in order to establish trust in the relationship and to define a win in terms of personal values. A key trait is the abundance mentality that there is plenty for everybody (v. the Scarcity Mentality). The abundance mentality flows from a deep inner sense of personal worth and security.

2. Relationships are the focus on Win/ Win. Whatever the orientation of the person you are dealing with (Win/Lose, etc.), the relationship is the key to turning the situation around. When there is a relationship of trust and emotional bank account balances are high, there is a much greater probability of a successful, productive interaction. Negative energy focused on differences in personality or position is eliminated; positive, cooperative energy focused on understanding and resolving issues is built.

3. Performance agreements or partnership agreements give definition and direction to Win/Win,. They shift the paradigm of production from vertical (Superior Subordinate) to horizontal (Partnership/Team). The agreement should include elements to create a standard by which people can measure their own success.

1. Defined results (not methods) what is to be done and when.

2. Guidelines the parameters within which the results should be accomplished

3. Resources human, financial, technical or organizational support available to accomplish the results.

4. Accountability the standards of performance and time(s) of evaluation.

5. Consequences what will happen as a result of the evaluation.

The agreement may be written by the employee to the manager to confirm the understanding. Developing Win/Win performance agreements is the central activity of management, enabling employers to manage themselves within the framework of the agreement. Then the manager can initiate action and resolve obstacles so employees can do their jobs. There are four kinds of consequences that management or parents can control Financial, Psychic, Opportunity and Responsibility. In addition to personal consequences, the organizational consequences of behaviors should be identified.

1. The Reward System is a key element in the Win/Win model. Talking Win/Win but rewarding Win/Lose results in negating the Win/Win paradigm. If the outstanding performance of a few is rewarded, the other team members will be losers. Instead, develop individual achievable goals and team objectives to be rewarded. Competition has its place against market competitors, last year’s performance, or another location or individual where cooperation and interdependence aren’t required, but cooperation in the workplace is as important to free enterprise as competition in the marketplace. The spirit of Win/Win cannot survive in an environment of competition or contests. All of the company’s systems should be based on the principle of Win/Win. The Compensation system of the managers should be based on the productivity and development of their people. Reward both P (production) and PC (building production capacity).

2. The Win/Win process has four steps.

1. See the problem from the other point of view, in terms of the needs and concerns

of the other party.

2. Identify the key issues and concerns (not positions) involved.

3. Determine what results would make a fully acceptable solution.

4. Identify new options to achieve those

results.

You can only achieve Win/Win solutions with Win/Win procedures. Win/Win is not a personality technique. It’s a total paradigm of human interaction.

Habit 3: Put First Things First (Personal Mangement)

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
by Stephen R. Covey
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989


Put First Things First
Principles of Personal Management
Habit 3

Habit 1 I am the Programmer.

Habit 2 Write the Program.

Habit 3 Execute the Program.

Habit 3 is Personal Management, the exercise of independent will to create a life congruent with your values, goals and mission. The fourth human endowment, Independent Will, is the ability to make decisions and choices and act upon them. Integrity is our ability to make and keep commitments to ourselves. Management involves developing the specific application of the ideas. We should lead from the right brain (creatively) and manage from the left brain (analytically).

In order to subordinate your feelings, impulses and moods to your values, you must have a burning “YES!” inside, making it possible to say “No” to other things. The “Yes” is our purpose, passion, clear sense of direction and value. Time management is an essential skill for personal management. The essence of time management is to organize and execute around priorities. Methods of time management have developed in these stages: 1) notes and checklists recognizing multiple demands on our time; 2) calendars and appointment books scheduling events and activities; 3) prioritizing, clarifying values integrating our daily planning with goal setting (The downside of this approach is increasing efficiency can reduce the spontaneity and relationships of life.); 4) managing ourselves rather than managing time focusing in preserving and enhancing relationships and accomplishing results, thus maintaining the P/PC balance (production versus building production capacity). A matrix can be made of the characteristics of activities, classifying them as urgent or not urgent, important or not important. List the activities screaming for action as “Urgent.” List the activities contributing to your mission, value or high-priority goals as “Important.”

Quadrant I activities are urgent and important called problems or crises. Focusing on Quadrant I results in it getting bigger and bigger until it dominates you. Quadrant III activities are urgent and not important, and often misclassified as Quadrant I. Quadrant IV is the escape Quadrant activities that are not urgent and not important. Effective people stay out of Quadrants III and IV because they aren’t important. They shrink Quadrant I down to size by spending more time in Quadrant II. Quadrant II activities are important, but not urgent. Working on this Quadrant is the heart of personal time management. These are PC activities. Quadrant II activities are high impact activities that when done regularly would make a tremendous difference in your life. (Including implementing the Seven Habits.) Initially, the time for Quadrant II activities must come from Quadrants III and IV. Quadrant I can’t be ignored, but should eventually shrink with attention to Quadrant II. 1) Prioritize 2) Organize Around Priorities 3) Discipline yourself Self discipline isn’t enough. Without a principle center and a personal mission statement we don’t have the necessary foundation to sustain our efforts.

Covey has developed a Quadrant II organizer meeting six criteria: 1. Coherence integrates roles, goals, and priorities. 2. Balance keeps various roles before you so they’re not neglected. 3. Quadrant II Focus Weekly the key is not to prioritize what’s in your schedule, but to schedule your priorities. 4. A People Dimension think of efficiency when dealing with things, but effectiveness when dealing with people. The first person to consider in terms of effectiveness is yourself. Schedules are subordinated to people. 5. Flexibility the organizer is your servant, not your master 6. Portability There are four key activities in Quadrant

II organizing, focusing on what you want to accomplish for the next 7 days: 1) Identify Roles 2) Select Goals two or three items to accomplish for each role for the next week, including some of your longer term goals and personal mission statement 3) Scheduling/Delegating including the freedom and flexibility to handle unanticipated events and the ability to be spontaneous 4) Daily Adapting each day respond to unanticipated events, relationships and experiences in a meaningful way.

Here are five advantages of this organizer: 1) It’s principle-centered it enables you to see your time in the context of what’s important and what’s effective. 2) It’s conscience directed it enables you to organize your life around your deepest values. 3) It defines your unique mission, including values and long-term goals. 4) It helps you balance your life by identifying roles. 5) It gives greater perspective through weekly organizing. The practical thread is a primary focus on relationships and a secondary focus on time, because people are more important than things.

The second critical skill for personal management is delegation. Effectively delegating to others is perhaps the single most powerful high-leverage activity there is. Delegation enables you to devote your energies to high level activities in addition to enabling personal growth for individuals and organizations. Using delegation enables the manager to leverage the results of their efforts as compared to functioning as a “producer.” There are two types of delegation: Gofer Delegation and Supervision of Efforts (Stewardship). Using Gofer Delegation requires dictating not only what to do, but how to do it. The supervisor then must function as a “boss,” micromanaging the progress of the “subordinate.” The supervisor thus loses a lot of the leveraging benefits of delegation because of the demands on his time for follow up. An adversarial relationship may also develop between the supervisor and subordinate.

More effective managers use Stewardship Delegation, which focuses on results instead of methods. People are able to choose the method to achieve the results. It takes more time up front, but has greater benefits. Stewardship Delegation depends on trust, but it takes time and patience. The people may need training and development to acquire the competence to rise to the level of that trust. Stewardship Delegation requires a clear, up-front mutual understanding of and commitment to expectations in five areas:

1. Desired Results Have the person see it, describe it, make a quality statement of what the results will look like and by when they will be accomplished.

2. Guidelines Identify the parameters within which the individual should operate, and what potential “failure paths” might be. Keep the responsibility for results with the person delegated to.

3. Resources Identify the resources available to accomplish the required results.

4. Accountability Set standards of performance to be used in evaluating the results and specific times when reporting and evaluation will take place.

5. Consequences Specify what will happen as a result of the evaluation, including psychic or financial rewards and penalties.

Using Stewardship Delegation, we are developing a goose (to produce golden eggs) based on internal commitment. We must avoid Gofer Delegation to get the golden egg or we kill the goose the worker reverts to the gofer’s credo: “Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it.” This approach is a new paradigm of delegation. The steward becomes his own boss governed by his own conscience, including the commitment to agreed-upon desired results. It also releases his creative energies toward doing whatever is necessary in harmony with correct principles to achieve those desired results. Immature people can handle fewer results and need more guidelines and more accountability interviews. Mature people can handle more challenging desired results with fewer guidelines and accountability interviews.

Paradigms of Interdependence

Victories in our personal development precede our public victories. Independence is the foundation of interdependence. The most important ingredient we put into any relationship is not what we say or do, but who we are. If our words and actions come from superficial human relations techniques (the Personality Ethic) rather than from our inner core (the Character Ethic), others will sense that duplicity. Interdependence opens worlds of possibilities for deep, meaningful associations, greater productivity, service, contribution and growth. It also exposes us to greater pain. In order to receive the benefits of interdependence, we need to create and care for the relationships that are the source of the benefits.

The Emotional Bank Account is a metaphor describing relationships and the P/ PC (Production versus building Production Capacity) balance for interdependence. It describes how trust is built on a relationship. Positive behaviors are deposits building a reserve. Negative behaviors are withdrawals. A high reserve balance results in higher tolerance for our mistakes and more open communication.

There are six major deposits we can make to the emotional bank account:

1. Understanding the individual. An individual’s values determine what actions will result in a deposit or a withdrawal for that individual. To build a relationship, you must learn what is important to the other person and make it as important to you as the other person is to you. Understand others deeply as individuals and then treat them in terms of that understanding.

2. Attend to the little things, which are the big things in relationships.

3. Keep commitments. Breaking a promise is a major withdrawal.

4. Clarify expectations. The cause of almost all relationship difficulties is rooted in ambiguous, conflicting expectations around roles and goals. Making an investment of time and effort up front saves time, effort and a major withdrawal later.

5. Show personal integrity. A lack of integrity can undermine almost any effort to create a high trust reserve. Honesty requires conforming our words to reality. Integrity requires conforming reality to our words, keeping promises and fulfilling expectations.

The key to the many is the one, especially the one that tests the patience and good humor of the many. How you treat the one reveals how you regard the many, because everyone is ultimately a one. 6. Apologize sincerely when you make a withdrawal. Sincere apologies are deposits, but repeated apologies are interpreted as insincere, resulting in withdrawals.

The Laws of Love and the Laws of Life: In giving unconditional love, we help others feel secure, safe and validated, which gives them the emotional security to do the same for others. Making conditions for our approval creates defensiveness and insecurity, breaking down the bonds of interdependence.

Dag Hammerskjold, past Secretary General of the United Nations, said, “It is more noble to give yourself completely to one individual, than to labor diligently for the salvation of the masses.” It is at the one-on-one level that we live the primary laws of love and life.

Problems should be recognized as PC opportunities, a chance to build up emotional bank accounts. These are opportunities to deeply understand and help others, which applies to all personal relationships in the family, with workers and with customers. The paradigm of the emotional bank account is the foundation of the habits of public victory required to avoid using personality techniques and to establish character ethics as the natural outgrowth of a secure, giving character.

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind (Personal Leadership)

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
by Stephen R. Covey
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989


Begin With The End In Mind
Personal Leadership
Habit 2

When we begin with the end in mind, we have a personal direction to guide our daily activities, without which we will accomplish little toward our own goals. Beginning with the end in mind is part of the process of personal leadership, taking control of our own lives.

All things are created twice. We create them first in our minds, and then we work to bring them into physical existence. By taking control of our own first creation, we can write or re-write our own scripts, thus taking some control and responsibility for the outcome. We write or re-write our scripts using our imagination and conscience.

There are three major aspects of our personal and business management. First is leadership what do I/we want to accomplish? Second is management how can management how can management I best accomplish it? Third is productivity doing it. According to Peter Drucker and Warren Bennis, “Management is doing things right; Leadership is doing the right things.” A starting point in beginning with the end in mind is to develop a personal mission statement, philosophy or credo. It will help you focus on what you want to be (character), do (contributions and achievements) and on the values and principles upon which your being and doing are based. The personal mission statement gives us a changeless core from which we can deal with external change.

Viktor Frankel developed a philosophy called “Logotherapy”. Logotherapy helps an individual detect his unique meaning or mission in life by reexamining his personal vision and values to assure they are based on principles and reality. We must reexamine the center of our life. Our center is the source of our security, guidance, wisdom and power. Making people or things outside ourselves important places ourselves at the mercy of mood swings, inconsistent behavior and uncontrollable changes of fortune. Being self-centered is too limiting people develop poor mental health in isolation. By centering our lives on correct principles, we create a stable, solid foundation for the development of our life support factors and embrace and encompass the truly important areas of our lives. Successful relationships, achievement and financial security will radiate from the principle center. The principles we base our lives on should be deep, fundamental truths, classic truths, or generic common denominators. They will become tightly interwoven themes running with exactness, consistency, beauty and strength through the fabric of our lives. In developing your personal mission statement, you can use your creative ability to imagine life milestones such as birthdays, anniversaries, retirement and funerals. What accomplishments would you like to celebrate? Visualize them in rich detail. You can make your mission statement balanced and easier to work with by breaking it down into the specific role areas of your life and the goals you want to accomplish in each area.

If you find your actions aren’t congruent with your mission statement, you can create affirmations to improve. An affirmation should have five ingredients: it should be personal, positive, present tense, visual and personal, positive, present tense, visual and personal, positive, present tense, visual emotional. You can also use visualization techniques. Affirmation and visualization are both self programming techniques that should be used in harmony with correct principles. Mission statements can also be made for families, service groups and organizations of all kinds. A family mission statement is an expression of its true foundation, its shared vision and values. Organizational mission statements should be developed by everyone in the organization. If there is no involvement in the process, there will be no commitment to the statement. The reward system must compliment and strengthen the stated value systems. An organization may have an all-encompassing mission statement, and each location, or even each team, may have their own. However, they should all dovetail with each other. If the mission statements of your family and organization dovetail with your personal mission statement, and you use those statements to keep your end in mind, you will accomplish your goals more quickly and easily.

Habit 1: Be Proactive (Personal Vision)

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
by Stephen R. Covey
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989


Be Proactive
Personal Vision
Habit 1

In our society, we have accepted 3 deterministic explanations of human limitations: genetic determinism, psychic determinism and environmental determinism. On closer examination, we discover that between stimulus and response, man has the freedom to choose. We don’t have to function on “auto pilot”.

Proactivity means that, as human beings, we are responsible for our own lives. Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions. We can subordinate feelings to values. We have the initiative and the responsibility to make things happen. Our most difficult experiences become the crucibles forging our character and developing our inner powers. There are three central values in life: the experiential (that which happens to us), the creative (that which we bring into existence), and the attitudinal (our response to difficult circumstances). What matters most is how we respond to what we experience in life.

Taking the initiative means recognizing our responsibility to make things happen. Use your R(esourcefulness) and I(nitiative). Proactivity is grounded in facing reality but also understanding we have the power to choose a positive response to our circumstances. Organizations of every kind can be proactive by combining the creativity and resourcefulness of proactive individuals to create a proactive culture within the organization.

We need to understand how we focus our time and energy to be effective. The things we are concerned about could be described as our “Circle of Concern”. There are things we can really do something about, that can be described as our “Circle of Influence”. When we focus our time and energy in our Circle of Concern, but outside our Circle of Influence, we are not being effective. However, we find that being proactive helps us expand our Circle of Influence. (Work on things you can do something about.)

Reactive people focus their efforts on the Circle of Concern, over things they can’t control. Their negative energy causes their Circle of Influence to shrink.

Our problems fall in three areas: Direct Control (problems involving our own behavior), Indirect Control (problems involving other people’s behavior), or No Control (problems we can do nothing about). Direct Control problems are solved through the private victories of Habits 1, 2 and 3. Indirect Control problems are solved through methods of influence, the public victories of Habits 4,5, and 6. No Control problems are best dealt with through attitude.

The Circle of Concern is filled with the “have” statements. The Circle of Influence is indicated by “be” statements. Anytime we think the problem is “out there,” that thought is the problem. While we are free to choose our actions, the consequences of our actions are governed by natural law. Sometimes we make choices with negative consequences, called mistakes. We can’t recall or undo past mistakes. The proactive approach to a mistake is to acknowledge it instantly, correct and learn from it. Success is the far side of failure.

At the heart of our Circle of Influence is our ability to make and keep commitments and promises. Our integrity in keeping commitments and the ability to make commitments are the clearest manifestations of proactivity.

Personality vs. Character Ethics

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
by Stephen R. Covey
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989


Personality vs. Character Ethics

There have been two dominant theories of achieving success in the literature of the past 200 years, the personality ethic and the character ethic. The personality ethic has been in the forefront since World War I. Previously, the character ethic was dominant. According to the character ethic, it is most important to focus on integrating the principles of effective living into one’s character. This may be a long-term process, but working on the character, including an effective view of the world, is getting at the root from which behavior flows and so is fundamental. The character ethic sees individual development as a long-term process bearing results according to the law of the harvest.

According to the personality ethic, there are skills and techniques one may learn and a public image, personality and attitudes one may develop that result in success. The problem is, eventually we may be discovered as insincere and shallow. These ideas may be helpful when they flow naturally from a good character and the right motives, but they are secondary.

A paradigm is a model, theory or explanation of something else. It is the “lens” of our preconceived notions through which we view the world. If our paradigm is not close to reality, our attitudes, behaviors and responses will not be effective or appropriate. We will be as lost as a person trying to function in Chicago with a map of New York. We can only accomplish quantum improvement in our lives if we accomplish a paradigm shift resulting in a more accurate paradigm shift resulting in a more accurate paradigm shift and effective view of the world. Some paradigm shifts may be fast (a blinding fl ash of the obvious), some are more slow (a change in character). The Seven Habits is a principle-centered paradigm. Principles are guidelines for human conduct that are proven to have enduring, permanent value — they are fundamental.

From Dependence to Interdependence

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
by Stephen R. Covey
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989


From Dependence to Interdependence

Our character is a composite of our habits. Changing habits is hard, but can be done by tremendous commitment. A (good) habit can be defined as the intersection of knowledge, skill and desire. Change is a cycle of being and seeing (visualization). Our objective is to move progressively on a maturity continuum from dependence to independence to interdependence. Although independence is the current paradigm of our society, we can accomplish much more by cooperation and specialization. However, we must achieve independence before we can choose interdependence.

Habits 1, 2 and 3 (Be Proactive, Begin With The End In Mind, Put First Things First) deal with self mastery. They are the “private victories” required for character growth. Private victories precede public victories. Habits 4, 5 and 6 are the more personality-oriented “public victories” of Teamwork, Cooperation and Communication. Habit 7 is the habit of Renewal, creating an upward spiral of growth. Effectiveness lies in balancing our Production (P) with building Production Capacity (PC).

Organizationally, the PC principle is to always treat your employees as you want them to treat your best customers. We must understand that the best contributions of our employees their hearts and minds are as volunteers, because they want to. This process of growth will be evolutionary, but the net effect will be revolutionary.








The following posts have been summarized by Michael Gray.